This invention relates generally to the field of medical testing devices, and more particularly to a process for controlling the miss use of disposable medical products.
The use of medical products that have a disposable component to them is ever increasing. For example a new type of dental technology has been developed by the PreioView Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio that uses a small camera and fiberscope to view under a patients gum thereby avoiding the need to cut the flap of the gum to view the area. A disposable hygienic sheath is used to cover the permanent fiberscope device so that there is no chance of transferring disease or germ""s from one patient to another. The sheaths, although disposable, are rather expensive to purchase, approximately twenty dollars each.
Because of the relative expense of the one time use disposable sheathes there can be a tendency by a dental practitioner to clean and re use the disposable sheath. This protocol is not recommended or desired by the manufacturer because there is a chance of improper or incomplete cleaning, not to mention the loss in revenue from the sale of additional disposable sheaths.
This is only one example of many proliferating medical technology applications that depend on the responsible single use of a disposable medical accessory that interfaces with a piece of permanent medical equipment. At the present time there is no adequate safeguard to help prevent the repeated miss use of supposedly one time use disposable medical products.
The primary object of the invention is to provide a means for controlling the miss use or repeated use of supposedly one time use disposable medical products.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein, by way of illustration and example, an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed.
A process for controlling the miss use of disposable medical products comprising the steps of: a unique ID code secured to a disposable medical accessory product, a control circuit built into a main, non disposable medical unit that can sense the introduction and time of use of said disposable medical accessory product, an ID reader built into said main, non disposable medical unit that does not allow said main medical unit to be turned on if it senses that said disposable medical accessory has already been used before, Said ID reader only allowing said main medical unit to be turned on when it senses that the said ID tag on said disposable medical accessory has never been read before, Said ID reader to be programmed to accept only particular numbers, known only to the manufacturer, thereby protecting against competitors who do not know the numbers, and An alternate embodiment that also can time the length of cleaning of a medical accessory that is meant to be re used but needs to first be cleaned or sterilized for a predetermined amount of time.
The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments to the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. It is to be understood that in some instances various aspects of the invention may be shown exaggerated or enlarged to facilitate an understanding of the invention.